Marijuana, in Congress
 

So, I was thinking, not seriously but more as a joke, if at a U.S. House of Representatives meeting, or a U.S. Senate meeting (These are the two houses of the law making branch in the U.S. government, the house being 435 people, the Senate being 100 people), if at a Congressional meeting, if someone filled the air ventilation with tons of pot.

Now, I know that'd be hard to do, but just hypothetically, if you could light up a giant bud, and get all the politicians High, I wonder what would happen.

Now, I'm not telling anyone to smoke or not smoke pot, and I'm indifferent to it, and have never used it, nor do I plan to, but I've seen that it can really make people a lot more chill, and calm, because several of my friends are regular users/dealers.

Anyway, I thought it would be funny to see all those high class politicians get high out of their mind, and just chill in office, and quit fighting D vs. R all the time, and just pass laws.

I mean obviously it's not a great idea, I just think it might not be bad if they all got high sometime and just chilled out, and weren't so high strung all the time. I could see them all just dancing with each other and singing, high out of their minds, passing peace laws and everything.

Idk, maybe I find this more humorous than you guys, but what do you think?
(please again, this isn't wholly serious. I do not have plans to light up a giant bud in the U.S. capitol)

I'd like to see that :xD: I think lots of things would improve if more people smoked weed(just my opinion). Seriously, legalize it already! :P

Who knows? I've done some of my better work after having a few drinks. ;)

However, I'd prefer to see some airborne truth serum added.

Senator Murray (D - Washington): "My fellow senators, this air-tanker deal is... is... is...... a *ridiculous* idea. The fact that we've talked about it for over ten years while flip-flopping between multiple contractors just proves we can get by with what we already have. That the deal would pump billions of taxpayer dollars into my constituency is irrelevant to the matter of national security at hand--a matter we have effectively proven to be a figment of our collective capitalist imagination."

:D :D :D :D :D

I have no doubt most of them smoke marijuana regularly.

Lol, idk about most, but yes, a lot more respectable adults do it than you would think.

Has everyone here stopped to think about why marijuana was made illegal in the first place?

Seriously, people...

^^ and so that gives the government the right to squelch freedom of choice?

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...uanadeaths.jpg
Sure is evil.

EDIT:
It was first made illegal because the US government thought it turned people violent. Even with the negative effects that article listed, they are far less worse than, say, alcohol, but I doubt you would ever want a prohibition on that.

Thank you, Devourment!

We're not talking about lethality, we're talking about what it does do, and the effects are not good.

Josie, since when is "freedom of choice" an established law anywhere in America? We're talking about what marijuana does. Does it ruin countless lives? Yes. Does it lead to all sorts of different bodily problems? Yes.

Devourment, read this, please. By the way, why is "Illegal Drugs" on that caption listed as causing 15,000 deaths, and marijuana somehow magically doesn't belong with it? As far as I know, marijuana is still an illegal drug.

Removing my post because I refuse to take part in such an idiotic and hypocritical debate.

Josie, marijuana is an addictive drug that causes most to spend large sums of cash to obtain it. It then, in many cases, leads to harder drugs afterward. Yes, it ruins lives.

While it has its negative effects, I think it should be legalized in a manner similar to cigarettes -- legal but banned from advertising, must display big health warnings on the package, age limit for use/possession, etc. I don't plan on using stuff at all (I avoid stimulants altogether including caffeine) but at the same time I don't see why people should be barred from it so long as they are aware of the health risks.

It's just things they suspect and have yet to actually test, no concrete evidence.

Are you for real. Look at it again and think.

1.]It is mentally addictive. You can be addicted to sex because it feels good, you can be addicted to marijuana because it feels good. If you stop smoking weed, you don't have horrible withdrawals, you just get cravings(and thats only in a select few people.)

2.]****'s expensive, but I have yet to hear of someone selling their house and possessions to buy weed. Stoners realize that food, shelter, etc come before weed, it doesn't have that much of a control on someones life.

3.]Smoking weed does not make people do harder drugs. People make people do harder drugs. I have yet to meet one person who went to a different drug because weed was not strong enough. A weed high and a coke high are two different things, one is not stronger than the other, just different.

4.]The only lives ruined by marijuana are those of the people and families of those killed in the constant drug wars between police and dealers. No one has ever committed suicide because of marijuana on its own.

The fact is, marijuana alone is not the cause of harm. You can have a heart attack exercising or smoking weed, it's not the work out or the pot, it's your heart. Marijuana can act as a catalyst to certain conditions, yes. People with mental disorders shouldn't smoke, people with high blood pressure shouldn't smoke, and the like. If someone is horribly depressed, smoking a drug that makes them feel not depressed is a ****ty idea, because the lack of it will worsen their depression. I am not saying that it doesn't make pre-existing conditions worse, but no one who has a good life and has things under control has ever gone into a deep depression because they smoke a lot of weed.

Can anyone here read? NOWHERE was this meant to be a debacle of an argument, so ****ing quit it. Do we have to have meaningless ****storms of this type every day on this site?

As I said before in a thread long ago, if someone has a viewpoint that is "shocking" to you, suspend your disbelief because they really do think that and are not just doing it to be insincere. Let's stay on track on keeping this debate civil everyone.

There's already an 8 page thread debating this issue. No need for two.

http://www.tree-of-souls.com/debate/...r_plant-8.html

thanks lol.

Ok, Idk if anyone watches the show V. It's not very good, but I watch it, and I was thinking that it'd be funny to see if they just lit up a giant bud on the Alien spaceship, and all the emotionless evil aliens got stoned crazy, and then the aliens and humans got along in peace. I think about this when I watch it, and it cracks me up.

Might not make sense if you haven't seen V though.

Lol!!!

So, alcohol.

I think it would be awesome :P

The main reason cannabis* was made illegal in the first place was from pressure by industries such as cotton, because hemp had potential as being a cheaper and more sustainable resource. The whole 'gateway drug' thing is full of rubbish - certainly, people who are more likely to try other drugs are likely to try it in addition to others, but the same goes for any other soft drug, such as LSD. the main reason people try it first is because it is more widely available and cheaper than many others. It is far less addictive than legal and acceptable products such as alcohol, nicotine, and possibly even caffeine.

* Its name is cannabis, not marijuana. Marijuana was a name made up in America to give it negative associations (as a 'Mexican-sounding' name)

So, I can either go by the studies conducted over years by scientists analyzing this in the field... or I can believe the word of two pro-pot members on ToS.

Decisions decisions...

Yeah, most doctors think smoking is pretty bad for you too.

I'm one of the few who supports its ban. And trust me, whenever I mention this to most people... it doesn't end well.

So how in depth do you feel that the government should lord over personal choices?

State government, or national?

Any. Seems what people put in their bodies should be their choice, not the state's, pretty libertarian thinking.

Well, it's not like I'm for people like Michelle Obama who's in favor of regulating the fast food restaurants or anything. But smoking marijuana is not the same thing as taking a drink of scotch or eating a double cheeseburger.

Cheeseburger, not so much, scotch though? Alchohol has some nasty effects with too much exposure over a long period of time... Just like weed.

((Cheeseburgers just aren't as bad, and take more consumption that alcohol or weed))


Tbh, the biggest danger of weed probably is doing something stupid while under the influence. Which of course is one thing cigarettes have going for them over both alcohol and marijuana. (ya don't have auto accidents because of smoking)

Aggarwal SK, Carter GT, Sullivan MD, ZumBrunnen C, Morrill R, Mayer JD (2009). "Medicinal use of cannabis in the United States: historical perspectives, current trends, and future directions"
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=...k2&hl=en&pli=1

Benson, John; Joy, Janet E.; Watson, Stanley J., ed (1999). Marijuana and medicine: assessing the science base. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-309-07155-0.

NIH (archive link)

MacKesyamiti, M; Fendrich, M; Goldstein, PJ (1997). "Sequence of drug use among serious drug users: typical vs atypical progression". Drug and Alcohol Dependence 45 (3): 185–96. doi:10.1016/S0376-8716(97)00032-X. PMID 9179520.

Tarter, R. E.; Vanyukov, M.; Kirisci, L.; Reynolds, M.; Clark, D. B. (2006). "Predictors of Marijuana Use in Adolescents Before and After Licit Drug Use: Examination of the Gateway Hypothesis". American Journal of Psychiatry 163 (12): 2134–40. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.163.12.2134. PMID 17151165 - summary

Did you even read my point above about use of the word 'marijuana'? (yes, I know one of the sources I just listed does, but people have no excuse once they know its origin.)

I still have no idea why this isn't going into the Marijuana debate thread that existed before this post (which was in no way intended to be a debate).

****s and giggles, duh.

hah :)

What about being at a college interview for a very prestigious college like Princeton, MIT, or Harvard, and pulling out a bud and lighting up. I think that'd be great.

That might actually fly at a Brown or Yale interview though lol.

But I can just imagine sitting there, they're talking about how awesome their school is, and then boom, you just light up, and both of you end up stoned.

I'd like to read the report that alumni interviewer sends back to the college admissions office!

I think the chances of you getting in would decline, but that's just me :)

Maybe if you had an "awesome" interviewer, though none of my college interviewers seemed the type to smoke pot....

Yeah, it depends on who your interviewer is I guess. Like my Yale interviewer was awesome, we just talked and chilled for 90 minutes. But, my Princeton interviewer seemed depressed, and he was sad/mad he wasn't making as much money as other people who went to Princeton. So, he really deterred me from wanting to go to Princeton because of that. (Not that I have a very god chance of getting in :) just wanted to try)

I wanna go to college, so it's easier for me to get a job where I can help the people starving in Africa. I don't give a damn about the average salary the college's grads earn.

Oh so your a senior eh?

Well good luck. I went through that last year (and happen to go to one of the schools you mentioned :p)

April fools day, of all days. That was stressful as hell.

And it looks like we killed the debate! Though this is even less relavent.... :)

Lol Theorist, you sound like a screenwriter for some of those movies like "How High"
:xD:

You know what would be lolworthy? Random drug test for congress.


Watch the ones who start blubbering. :P

I don't think it should be legalized, but if they do, than might as well legalize all the other illegal drugs, than they can tax it and the US will have its debt paid off alot sooner than it will be now. I'm not saying that should happen, but it's more of just an opinion.

Which one you go to? I got denied by both today lol :)

Got into Cornell though, so I'm not too dissapointed.


ps: Random drug testing for Congress would be quite interesting. I would be quite interested in how many do it. Not that I'd be mad, but I think the results would be funny.